Graphic Design & Illustration

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Month: January 2016

This project was done as a Christmas present for my boyfriend’s dad, he is rebuilding a 1968 Ford Mustang – yellow with two black racing stripes & soft top. I made the license plate his dad’s initials with the number of the month he was born & the year (BN•0462).

Something that was very important for this project is having good reference photos – especially to be sure you are basing your piece on the right model. I had 1 car for the model, 1 car for the colour & two cars with a side view that both had soft tops.

A great tool I just picked up from the dollarstore was a water tray with a brush cleaner that holds brushes around the edges. I bought one for facepainting & then picked up a larger one for painting, the brush cleaner works awesome! Before I would use jars and containers but sometimes I forget to take my brushes out of the water and the finished on the brushes start to crumble & break off – this is particularity annoying when the finish starts to flake off onto the pice your painting.

Another great tool is a Staywet or Stawet Pallet, preventing paint waste by keeping paint moist (even acrylics) for days! It is especially helpful when this painting will take a few days to complete. This is how it works: there is a sponge saturated with water placed in a deep tray & some special paper that has soaked in hot water for about 15 minutes before being placed on the wet sponge. Once this is done you can place your paint directly on the special paper (which is also reusable) & when you are either taking a break or putting the paint away for the day you place the lid on top of the tray – be sure it is sealed tight – to keep the paint moist. Just do not leave it for too long where the sponge or paper could mold – this happened to me while in school, I forgot about it for about a month or two & did not clean it our or let the sponge dry out so it started to mold; I bleached the container & bought a replacement sponge & paper set, which are not expensive at all.

Here is the process & final outcome:

Blank Surface

Reference Photos

Plastic Paint Brush Holder/Cleaner

Sta-wet Pallet

Pencil Sketch

Penciled Background & Inked Car

Car base paint phase 2

All Taped with Final Details

Removing Background Tape

Final Outcome

Final Outcome

Final Outcome

Final Outcome

Car Process

Materials & Process

This was another experimental piece, I was not too sure how it was going to turn out as my paining skills & knowledge need some work; that being said, I am pleased with the final outcome & think his dad will really like it.

You can follow me on my social to see my projects & process in real time.

This started off as an experimental piece, I bought a pack of 2 larger black canvases (18”x24”) to play around with & was not totally sure what I was going to do with it but knew that I wanted to try something new.

After some thought and staring at the blank canvas I decided to re-create number 31 of my Inktober sketches; it is one that I wanted to expand on since the small sketch was created.

I started of with a light pencil sketch – lighting is very important as graphite is a bit hard to see on black, so doing this with angled light or in front of a window helps – once the sketch was complete I used tinted charcoal with some light pastels to make the illustration pop. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out!

About a day after posting it on Instagram someone I used to work with bought it for a family member for Christmas. I was surprised & delighted at how quickly it sold, at first I was unsure about selling it as it was an experiment that worked out better than anticipated 🙂

Deer Skull – Charchoal

Shortly after selling it, I started to sketch out a design for the second black canvas. More on this to come once complete. Follow me on my social to see my process & projects happening in real time.

I was planning on making a post for this in late November after the course…but it did not go as planned, late is better than never right!

The airbrush course was AWESOME! if you are interested in airbrushing this is an excellent course to take, the instructor is very knowledgeable & has his shop open to people looking for a place to airbrush every Wednesday after 5 (unless otherwise posted) so people can get together & help each other out with their projects or just to hang out & have a good time, how awesome is that?!

The first day we started off with learning how the airbrush works & different parts of an airbrush, later which are good ones to get along with some tips & tricks the instructor has leaned from trial & error or through others he knows in the industry. Then we discussed paints, mixtures, where to buy it, brands, solvent vs water-based, etc. & learned about some resources available in Edmonton to find supplies. Later we learned how to do proper dagger strokes, dots, shading & messed around with some stencils before starting our project. We learned how to properly prep surfaces, about paper tape masking, layering & finally started the painting process.

The second day we had a bit of a review with a bit of Q & A, some warm up/practice before continuing on our projects we later finished that day.

We also learned that if you ever need any clear coating done it is very dangerous to attempt at home without the proper set up – while the paint is curing the fumes become lethal. Our instructor informed us to get it done at a body shop with a proper paint bay – he also does it for about $25 (depending on the size of the project I would assume that price could go up). This keeps you & your family or whoever you may be living with safe, not to mention the clear coat finish is applied by a professional!

Here are some pics I also shared on my Instagram while taking the course back in November, you can follow me on my social to see real time posts (links below):

I was talking to the instructor, we both felt we had met before, as it turns out he has participated in Edmonton’s Artwalk a few times the last couple of years & it was actually one of his pieces that got me interested in airbrushing! I remember going to my first Artwalk with my boyfriend & seeing this amazing elephant painted on metal that had some grinder designs in it, it was amazing & I was inspired to try it!

Here is a screenshot of the elephant off of his website bakerboyzdesigns.ca, as usual pictures do not do it justice as seeing it in the daylight where all the colours & details are visual. But You can check out his work & business on this site, portfolio is awesome!

I am very excited to do more airbrushing with the new found knowledge in my brain, to practice & make pieces for people. I already have a cool project in mind that I cannot wait to start for my dad’s enclosed trailer!